Wade has founded or co-founded, invested in, and been a director of over 25 companies and has completed 55 financing and M&A transactions. His previous work experience includes the Boston Consulting Group and Mobil Corporation. Wade also served as an Airborne Ranger in the US Army where he was a decorated veteran of the Gulf War. He is a Baker Scholar graduate of Harvard’s MBA program and is married with five children.

Posts by Wade Myers

Q: This question is related to transitioning. My husband has a job with great benefits and is making more than he ever has in his line of work, which he has been doing for 20 years. In the beginning of his career, he always wanted his own business but it just never worked out. As our oldest children are entering the teen years, going out on his own could serve many purposes: to earn income, teach the children about entrepreneurship, and develop a family business. How should we prepare for the big leap so to speak? It just seems like we should…

This video gives a fairly thorough explanation of raising different types of venture capital at the various stages of a company’s life: This video is just 1 of nearly 200 videos available with a Venture Academy subscription and is excerpted from the Finance and Accounting section.

In the initial post of this series, I suggested a step-by-step process for launching a business. This post will be a continuation of Step 4 – Launch, where we explore the benefits and challenges of various methods of achieving a startup launch. (See Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 for other posts on the process). Launching the Best Opportunity As mentioned in our previous installment, this is the phase in which you are prepared to launch the best opportunity that was fully vetted in the earlier steps of Define, Generate, and Evaluate. In the last article, we discussed the four core requirements for a launch and in this…

In the initial post in this series, I suggested a step-by-step process for launching a business. This post will focus on the first post of two posts on Step 4 – Launch, where we lay out the requirements to fully launch the opportunity you’ve decided to pursue. (See Part 2 and Part 3 for other posts on the process). Launching the Best Opportunity In this phase, you are prepared to launch the best opportunity that was fully vetted in the earlier steps of Define, Generate, and Evaluate. If the idea passed your evaluation criteria with flying colors in Step 3 – Evaluate, you should have full confidence to move forward…

In my initial post in this series I suggested a step-by-step process for launching a business. This article will focus on Step 3 – Evaluate, where you evaluate the opportunities you’ve identified. (See Part 2 of this series if you missed my explanation of Step 2 – Generate). Evaluating Opportunities – In this phase, the ideas generated in Step 2 are evaluated using the criteria established in Step 1. By using this methodical process of starting a business – and with God’s guidance – you will hopefully develop a high-quality business idea that can be pursued with confidence and enthusiasm. In this phase you want to eliminate bad…

In the first post in this series, I suggested a step-by-step process for launching a business. Since we’ve already established a detailed process for Step 1– Define, where you define the evaluation criteria for a business idea, this post will focus on Step 2 – Generate, where you generate ideas. Generating Ideas - Your goal is to identify unmet needs, identify products and services to serve those unmet needs, and then identify various product and service platforms that are able to deliver the necessary products or services to serve those unmet needs. Always start and finish with customers. For example, the best Smartphone applications (“apps”)…

In addition to wealth generation and Kingdom impact (such as we see with the Cook’s Pest Control case), having your own business – especially a family business – can also reform the family economy and relationships. A family business can reverse the conditioning by our consumer-driven economy to spend our earnings on wood, hay, and stubble rather than invest for a future return. Further, a family business can re-integrate the family, since one of the unfortunate consequences of the industrial age has been the “disintegration” of the family as we typically go in opposite directions to work. Finally, a family working together…

John Cook, armed only with a healthy mix of creativity and desperation, started Cook’s Pest Control with virtually no money in 1928 on the cusp of the Great Depression. The business is still owned and operated by his family, now in its fourth generation, and has grown into the seventh largest pest control firm in the U.S. with over 1,300 employees and 32 offices. Note that while most aspiring entrepreneurs dream of financial success like the Cook family experienced, as faithful followers of Christ we also need to view business as the Cooks do: it is a means to glorify…

Q: I am a design engineer that has created what I believe to be a revolutionary design, but I know very little about patenting the design, raising venture capital, building production capacity and ramping up a company. What advice would you offer someone like me? A: It is hard to give good advice on so little information, but here are a couple of thoughts: If you are a great design engineer and your skills are all focused on design, then you should consider staying in your sweet spot and just be a design company that creates great designs. You can then license…